There can sometimes be no better opportunity for coaches to flag up failings than on the back of a fine win and the Glasgow Warriors management duly appears to have seized its chance following last weekend’s impressive victory in Lyon.

Prior to Dave Rennie’s arrival as their head coach, an away win against a team contending for a place in the Top 14 play-offs could have been considered an achievement in itself for a team that has only reached the Champions Cup quarter-finals on one occasion.

However, the rise in expectations has been outlined by Mike Blair, who works as an assistant coach with both Glasgow and the national team.

“We’re really pleased with the result against Lyon, but we’ve probably been quite tough on the players on some of the performance aspects. So, we’re aware that there’s stuff to work on,” he said.

“We looked at the time in the game when we gave the penalties away and we piggy-backed penalties. We gave them opportunities where, for example, we were on their line and we gave away a soft penalty with Oli Kebble and then we gave away a penalty about 30 seconds later, so we went from a situation where we were right on top of them to suddenly having a lineout just outside our 22.

“We’re aware they have a very strong lineout. (Forwards coach) Jon Humphreys was talking earlier on about the quality of the jumpers they’ve got and he hasn’t seen anything like that in the club game with the three guys they had at four, five and six. So, that’s an area that we’ve got to stay on top of, although we have done well in that area.”

Even in the departments that functioned well there is, Blair reckoned, room for improvement.

“We made a fair few line breaks. I think it was a real positive the amount of players we had in support but we didn’t quite finish off,” he said.“I thought they worked back really well to get in the passing channel. I think it happened two or three times where almost on that scoring pass they got a hand in with a player chasing back.”

He knows, however, that in saying so he is being hyper-critical after a win that has put them right back in contention for qualification for the knockout stages, albeit still playing catch-up on pool leaders Saracens.

Things could hardly have gone better, not least in the execution of a courageous plan which included making a series of selections that were at variance with the choices made by the Scotland management during the autumn, most notably in the case of Adam Ashe who, picked ahead of club co-captain Ryan Wilson who played in all four of Scotland’s autumn Tests, scored two of his side’s tries.

Having claimed a full haul of points in Lyon, they now have scoped to freshen up the team, perhaps bringing in the internationalists who were left out last weekend and will now have a point to prove, while still being expected to register another bonus point win against the same opponents at Scotstoun on Sunday.

Blair knows, though, that for all that Lyon now have nothing to play for, three defeats in their first three matches leaving them with no chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals, the visitors have too many high class players in their ranks to be taken lightly.

“We’re wary that sometimes French teams, when they’ve got less to play for and they’ve got more of a free spirit with the amount of quality they’ve got, can be dangerous, so we’re aware that we need to be firing on all cylinders again to get the victory,” he said.

He added that they need only look back a couple of weekends to the way that what was largely their own second string side overcame the early ordering off of prop Alex Allan to claim a fine win, to remind themselves that those seeking to make a name for themselves can approach opportunities such as this.

“I think the Glasgow performance of the season so far has been the Scarlets game and we had a lot of guys resting for that,” said Blair. “Often guys come in with a point to prove. They’re going really well in the French Championship at the moment, they’re fourth in it and they’ll have players desperate to get involved in those kind of games, so that could be even more dangerous.”